It’s been exactly one week since my dHerbs 20 day detox ended. As mentioned in my previous post, I postponed my long awaited cheat meal to figure out how I’d like to proceed in re my eating habits and overall diet. But before I get to that, let me update you on how I am feeling. One week after I stopped taking my supplements I still feel wonderful. I still feel extremely full on much less food than I imagined. I still feel light and refreshed after my meals. And I am still experimenting with new recipes. I am not sweating as much which affirms that a part of the elimination process was increased perspiration. I miss that … I miss knowing that my body is eliminating in multiple ways on a regular basis. The photo below is me after a moderately intense workout.
But otherwise, I have no regrets about the detox and highly recommend it for anyone who is serious about pressing “restart”.
I stuck with raw food through the week and up until last night when I finally had a cooked, vegan meal. After deciding that I was ready for a cooked meal, I visited Green Sprouts Vegetarian Restaurant. I read the reviews in hopes of making the best choices related to my meal. My spring rolls were delicious and so was the Mongolian “beef”. I didn’t care for the acclaimed “chicken” drumsticks or my Empire “chicken”. In spite of this, I still enjoyed my meal. The sauces were amazing and having steamed brown rice after weeks of no refined carbs created smiley faces in my mouth 🙂 (meals pictured below).
Nonetheless, I am back to my raw meals today and this week. So … what’s next?
I began experimenting with following a vegan diet in 2000 – 16 years ago. Up until that time I’d never even heard of anyone following a vegan diet or thinking of not eating meat. There aren’t many vegans in rural South Carolina 🙂. I enjoyed my phases of transitioning from vegetarian to being vegan. I was surprised at how many alternatives there were and how satisfying my meals could be, even without meat. Enter Peace Corps and living in a remote village in West Africa and there went me following a vegan diet. But I didn’t feel bad about my choice. I knew exactly where my food was coming from; eating the same food as my host family allowed me to eat with them on a regular basis; and meat was considered a side dish – not the main staple of a meal. I returned to the U.S. in 2003 and maintained a vegetarian diet until I relocated once again in 2005. Since that time my diet has fluctuated from being completely vegan to eating almost everything under the sun. And unfortunately, my weight has followed these same fluctuations – not exclusively because of me being vegan or not, but because of how I tend to approach food overall when I’m not following a vegan diet.
After giving some serious thought on my experience with this detox, my overall health, and what I have learned over the course of 15 years as a health educator, I am returning to a vegan diet. I’d like to emphasize that I am not returning to a vegan diet because I think it is the only way to maintain a healthy lifestyle, nor am I returning to a vegan diet because I think it is the best decision for everyone else. I wish I could say that I am joining the ranks for people who protest on behalf of animal rights or only buy vegan leather goods, but that is not a part of my present journey. I believe in compassion towards all beings, including animals, but that is not the main focus of my journey. I believe in a holistic lifestyle and perhaps that is the foundation of how I live much of my life – this overflows to how I spend my money, how I wear my hair, the products I purchase and use on my skin and even in my home, so it only seems right to complete the circle and allow this same care to overflow to what I eat.
With the aforementioned in mind, I am doing this because time and experience have proven that being vegan is the best decision for me. I tend to eat better, take better care of myself, practice healthy doses of indulgence and eat more intentionally when my options are focused on whole foods. I fundamentally believe that there are some serious issues with the way food – meat and dairy especially – is produced here in the U.S. This belief has never wavered regardless of what I ate. And I also know that in my years of educating others about healthy choices, managing chronic diseases, decreasing risks of cancer and other related matters, diets focused on whole grains, fruit and vegetables in abundance and limited animal products have always been consistent recommendations.
I am doing a few things differently this time. Unlike before, my diet will not consist of an overabundance of meat substitutes. As I prepare for another wonderful birthday, here is to me taking better care of myself :-). Thanks for reading and stay tuned for additional updates throughout the summer!